eir

Etymology

Coined by Christine M. Elverson by removing "th" from their.

Pronunciation

• (General American) enPR: âr, IPA^(key): /ɛɹ/
• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: âr, IPA^(key): /ɛə/
• Rhymes: -ɛə(ɹ)
• Homophones: air, ere

Adjective

eir (not comparable)

1. (neologism) Belonging to em, their (singular). Gender-neutral third-person singular possessive adjective, coordinate with his and her.
   • 1975 August 23, Black, Judie, “Ey has a word for it”, in Chicago Tribune, 1, page 12:

     Eir sentences would sound smoother since ey wouldn't clutter them with the old sexist pronouns. And if ey should trip up in the new usage, ey would only have emself to blame.

   • 1996 December 22, Worth, Shirley, “New To Yoga”, in alt.yoga, Usenet‎, message-ID <32BDCA0C.6C8@worth.org>:

     A person whose habit is to stand and walk splay-footed may *think* eir feet are straight ahead, when they are actually pointed only slightly less out.

   • 1997 November 25, Dawson, Scott Robert, “Who Pays for Cellular Calls”, in alt.cellular, Usenet‎, message-ID <347acf56.333719@news.interlog.com>:

     If a mobile user is far from eir home area, ey will pay a long-distance fee for carriage of the call *from* eir home area, just as a caller would pay long-distance on a call *to* that area.

   • 2004 March 31, Thomas, Sue, Hello World : travels in virtuality‎, Raw Nerve Books, →ISBN, OL 4487793W, page 78:

     The adult worries much less; is cautious, sensible and knows how to protect emself and eir system from attack and error.

   • 2011 March 15, Edwards, RJ, “#89: New Friend”, in Riot Nrrd‎, retrieved 2012-10-06:

     And ultimately: I think my readers are mature enough that knowing eir assigned gender is not going to give them an “excuse” to misgender em.

   • For more examples of usage of this term, see Citations:eir.

See also

• other attested and proposed gender-neutral pronouns

Anagrams

• -ier, Eri., IRE, ire, rei, rie

Etymology

From Old Norse eir, from Proto-Germanic *aiz. Cognate with Faroese eir, Norwegian eir, Danish ir, Old English ār (> English ore), Old High German ēr.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /eiːr/
• Rhymes: -eiːr
• Homophone: Eir

Noun

eir m (genitive singular eirs, no plural) or eir n (genitive singular eirs, no plural)

1. (uncountable) copper; a reddish-brown, malleable, ductile metallic element with high electrical and thermal conductivity, symbol Cu, and atomic number 29. ^syn.

Verb

eir

1. impersonal present indicative of mynet

Etymology

Latin hērēs

Noun

eir m (oblique plural eirs, nominative singular eirs, nominative plural eir)

1. heir
   • circa 1170, Wace, Le Roman de Rou:

     Rou en fist son eir

     Rollo made him his heir

Alternative forms

• (Rumantsch Grischun, Sursilvan, Sutsilvan, Puter, Vallader) ir

Etymology

From Latin eō, īre, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁ey-.

Verb

eir

1. (Surmiran) to go

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ei̯r/

Verb

eir

1. (literary) impersonal present / future of mynd